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BiggerPockets Houstonians Forum

from Houston and Milwaukee, Texas and Wisconsin

posted over 3 years ago

I did a search for a forum for investors, agents, lawyers, etc specifically in the Houston and surrounding areas which came up empty. So I thought I'd create one where we can discuss deals, the market, suggestions, and anything else that may come up. Hopefully this goes well because it could be of big value to everyone in the area. If you are in the Houston area please participate in this forum. You never know who you could meet that could take you real estate journey to the next level!!!

Investor from Houston, Texas

Investor from Houston, Texas

replied over 3 years ago

Should work as long as it catches on. @Cordell Hinton-Brown Hopefully it does. With that being said, who are y'all using for GCs in the area?

I've been meaning to submit an idea to @Brandon Turner and @Joshua Dorkin that I've seen on other forums that I use. That's to have a "Regional" section of the forum, broken up into NE, SE, SW, NW, MW sections, further broken down into states. Within the state forums I've even seen people "sticky" (are you familiar with this?) individual cities. It's really helpful in the forums I've used before. Just a thought.

Investor from Houston, Texas

from Houston and Milwaukee, Texas and Wisconsin

Should work as long as it catches on. @Cordell Hinton-Brown Hopefully it does. With that being said, who are y'all using for GCs in the area?

I've been meaning to submit an idea to @Brandon Turner and @Joshua Dorkin that I've seen on other forums that I use. That's to have a "Regional" section of the forum, broken up into NE, SE, SW, NW, MW sections, further broken down into states. Within the state forums I've even seen people "sticky" (are you familiar with this?) individual cities. It's really helpful in the forums I've used before. Just a thought.

It'll catch on as long as we be sure to use it. As far as general contractors, I'm still new and have yet to do my first deal, but I'm all in as fad as my choice to do REI

from Houston, Texas

from Denver, Colorado

replied over 3 years ago

Yes Ive been to that several times. So far I would say that is the busiest one but I was wondering if there were any others around town that are up and coming. Aside from the monthly RICH even and the monthly texans grille event.

from Humble, Texas

replied over 3 years ago

Hello Fellow Houstonians,

First post here at BP! I am am in the process of getting my RE license, and will be sending off to take my test in the next few days. I'm looking for a broker who is investor friendly but I will also have the occasional buyer rep agreement and listing. I have a couple of buyer rep agreements ready to go, and just need a sponsoring broker pretty quickly. Any reccomendations? Thanks!

from Houston, Texas

replied over 3 years ago

I have a feeling that these current post will be of great value to the Houston area investors. Thanks for starting this. I think I'm going to try and make it out to the meet-ups ASAP to get to know a few of my fellow investors. Thanks Again!

Investor from Houston, Texas

Great idea for the Houston area. I'm looking forward to seeing how this grows.

In response to the meet up here in Houston, @Charles Nguyen sets up a meet every month at Pub Fiction starting at 6:30 pm - 9 pm or so. The next meet is on the 16th of this month and I will put the link for the thread he created for this months meet up

Investor from Sugar Land, Texas

replied over 3 years ago

Questions for the forum:

I'm moving from Canada to Missouri City, and a big factor in our decision of house location was the quality of schools. Schools are fairly uniform in Canada, so this is new to us. School quality (according to Zillow/Great Schools) varies greatly, even in small geographic areas.

1) If you're seeing scores of 1-5 would you assume buyers don't have kids or they are sending their kids to private school? Or do the scores not tell the whole story?

2) What do private schools cost?

3) Even with scores of 5-7 wouldn't most parents pay a little more or get a smaller house/lot to get into the 8-10 areas? As an example, Lake Olympia compared to Sienna Plantation in Missouri City.

4) If you buy in an area with good schools can you be confident they will stay that way long term? And vice-versa, do poor schools sometimes get better?

Great forum idea @Cordell Hinton-Brown . Bigger Pockets should break down like you say @Benjamin Ouderkirk. Can't get you're name highlighted for some reason...

Investor from Houston, Texas

Welcome! Where from Canada are you moving from? I'm friends with a family that moved here about 6mo ago from Calgary.

While I wish I could help more on the school issue (I'm just out of college myself, no kids, and not originally from Houston) - I can still say I wouldn't depend solely on online rating systems because who knows what they're really grading the school on, how they get their ratings, or if the areas they assess heavily are where most of your concern lies. Not to say these rating sites/systems are corrupt or worthless, but I would combine/compare it with word of mouth.

As far as word of mouth advice I can offer you, the only bit I've heard about schools is that the Klein ISD (which is up in Spring, north side vs Missouri down on the SW) is excellent.

Wish I could be of more help. Good luck! If you have the freedom to chose other living locations I would definitely give Spring a look-over if you haven't already.

Investor from Sugar Land, Texas

Investor from Houston, Tx

replied over 3 years ago

Hi - I am pleased to see a Houston thread. My husband and I want to start networking with other REI in town. As for the school comment, you need to be very careful choosing schools. They can differ greatly within an area and within a district. I recommend using a site like greatschools.net to look at ratings, visit the schools and talk to parents if possible. For example, in our district, Spring Branch, there are two excellent high schools and two terrible ones.

1) Before all these nice housing developments moved in, Missouri City was a somewhat low income area. If you look at home prices on Zillow, you'll see that the homes north of Hwy 6 and east of the Ft. Bend Parkway are much less expensive. My guess is that parts of Sienna Plantation are zoned to the same schools as the homes in the older part of Missouri City. I don't know that for a fact, but I do know there are lower income neighborhoods that are near the more upscale ones in Missouri City, so that may be what's going on with some of the schools. Most of Missouri City is very nice, though.

It's not that the schools in the lower income areas are not funded at the same amount per student as other schools in the district, but kids growing up in poverty sometimes have stuff going on in their lives that can affect how well they do in school, and there is often a higher incidence of violence, drugs, etc. in those schools. If the kids score poorly on state tests, the school will receive a lower ranking. Generally, lower school scores mean there are more low income students attending that school.

2) On average, I believe you'll pay about $12K per year for private school.

3) Yes, people will pay more to live in areas with better schools if they can afford to do that. This is something that real estate investors must consider when evaluating properties. When you are looking at potential homes, you should look at the particular schools to which that home is zoned.

4) Good schools can go down, and bad schools can come up. In general that will be directly tied to what is going on in the community. If a community is growing and new housing developments are coming in, I'd expect the schools to get better, too.

All that said, you might want to also consider Sugar Land, which borders Missouri City. Median household income in Missouri City in 2012 was $84K and in Sugar Land it was $113K. You still need to check the data on the individual schools, though.